Category: Magic Talk

Because I am a lover of silence, I am still not doing lots of magic talks and magic events, but “Johnny Hates Jazz” was visiting my neighbourhood, so can’t ignore that, huh?

Clark Datchler & Mike Nocito returned in the music industry a while ago and surprised the world with an incredible Album called “Magnetized” in 2013 featuring the excellent title track amongst other songs like “Lighthouse”, “Man With No Name” and “Release You”.

I remembered that I was checking the Facebookpage if there was something coming up in the Netherlands, but then a couple of weeks Clark did not post anything and then explain the drastic silence. The charismatic singer collapsed in London, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, which can’t be treated by chemotherapy and with an operation can be beaten maybe. Luckily the doctors gave Clark his life back and is ready to make people happy again with his beautiful voice together with his band mate Mike Nocito.

I met the two legendary very friendly easy-going popstars at Tulip Inn Hotel in Hilversum, after their live performance of “Turn Back The Clock” with JHJ guitarist Marcus Bonfanti at Gerard Ekdom’s radioshow “Ekdom In De Ochtend” and just before their soundcheck for their concert at Podium De Vorstin. The support act for the night was Dutch band Bottles Of Love.

WHAT HAPPENED TO CALVIN HAYES?

Calvin is in the States and left in 2010. He has family there.

(Calvin was dating Kim Wilde in the eighties)

WHY DID YOU BREAK UP IN 1992?

There was a very bad car-accident with the singer Phil ThORNalley (who replaced Clark Datchler and co-wrote Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn”). We started promoting the second Album (“Tall Stories”, 1991) and the car flipped over and Phil almost had his arm cut off. Terrible timing but luckily nobody died. After the car accident no one wanted to continue. We all have producing and engineering backgrounds, so we had other things to do anyway.

CLARK, HOW WAS YOUR SOLO EXPERIENCE?

All the independent record labels from the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties were sold and bought by multinational cooperations, like Virgin, which was sold in 1993. We were a part of that and the way they invest in musicians completely changed. My reaction was that I wanted to leave, wanted to do something totally different. I went down to a city called Bath and did my own thing at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios and did lots of recordings with no commercial ideas as the doors where closed anyway. Somewhere in the 2000’s we were welcomed back.

HOW DID YOU GET TOGETHER AGAIN IN 2009?

Datchler wrote “Magnetized” and was pretty clear “this was a Johnny Hates Jazz song”. He called Mike after not having been in touch for 22 years and did not say anything about the song, but it gave him an excuse to call. It felt like they spoke just a week ago and to him it was only a matter of “who picks up the phone first”.

The reason for the success was a combination of “it is just a good song” and especially in the UK “it sounds like Johnny Hates Jazz and it is Johnny Hates Jazz”, so they played it immediately.

WHEN IS YOUR UPCOMING NEW EP OUT?

There is a new EP coming out and that is all I can tell you. It’s gonna be great.

FAVORITE MAGIC JOHNNY HATES JAZZ SONG?

Mike : it will always be “Shattered Dreams”, It’s the first, and it’s a good pop record. In America it’s played 3 million times. One radio station played it 24 hours a day for 24 years.

Clark (can I pick two or three) : “I Don’t Wanna Be Hero”, just recorded it in an Acoustic version for the New EP. A very different version with Piano, Bass and Cello. On the orginal “Turn Back The Clock” Album, everyone felt like they did not do the recording right.

On the “Magnetized” Album, “The Road Not Taken”, a favourite autobiographic song which can refer to anyone. It is really me asking myself the question what would life have been if I made other decisions.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE MAGIC SONG OF SOMEONE ELSE?

Mike : I Like “Fire & Rain” James Taylor (Mike could tell that I wasn’t familiar with this song, eyes don’t lie 😉)

Clark : I really love “Forbidden Colours” Ryuichi Sakamoto & David Sylvian, it was a theme of “Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence” with David Bowie. A big hit in the eighties and is a beautiful piece of music.

Coming up a review of the concert of Johnny Hates Jazz, the band that deserve to conquer the world once again with their “Heart Of Gold”.

During Amsterdam Dance Event, I have the opportunity to meet our “Gypsy Woman” from the nineties popstar Crystal Waters at Dylan Hotel, so I take the train for a speed date.

There was high security around me. While I was waiting for my Magic Moment, I saw DJ’s Hardwell & Afrojack making their fans go wild when they came out a boat and behind the overprotected gate Crystal Waters where already there waiting for her manager and me.

Back in the day, Crystal Waters wrote In 1988 “Gypsy Woman” and “Makin’Happy”. It took 3 years to get her first written songs signed by a Record Company with the support of some DJ’s.

The last 5 years Crystal Waters was at ADE and now she is back at the same time her Single “Believe” is out and brought her friend Kristine W (which released recently her New Single “Out There”) to Holland to show her that ADE is really something to experience as artists like her.

The next day she did a Songwriterscamp for Spinnin’Records / Ultra Records with Trobi (?), a new kid that was amazing at the studio and she is excited for the final results.

On the third day she did lots of press, like this interview, where she was telling me some details about her upcoming New Album “IAMHOUSE”, which will be a collection of divers house-styles like Commercial House, Deep House, Underground House and Dark House. She wrotes 14 tracks and make the melodies, while producers provide the music featuring StoneBridge, Sted-E, Jesse Saunders and some new folks (nicknamed Next Years Generation). She will pick 9 or 10 tracks, which will set to be released around February 2017.

Broadway Musical “Pippin” have their Dutch première tonight and yesterday, we had a meet and greet after the first show with Kyle Dean Massay, Erik Altemus and Gabrielle McClinton. A great opportunity that came on my way at my embarrassing part of my life.

At the end of last year I was battling with 700 emails linked with this site. I have no assistent so I was just struggling with words and one of the words was “Pippin”. I skip it and forgot it. A few days later the PR-lady said “Hello”, when she came on my path and I was thinking “Pippin?” and a conversation starts in my not so clever moment, that could be an Oscar-winning role as “Mr.Stupid”.

We live these days in a world we like to banned everyone who made one mistake or unfriend people when you said something stupid, but lucky me, I end up in the canteen of Royal Theatre Carré surrounded by a bunch of enthusiastic Americans who works behind the scenes of the famous Broadway Musical waiting for the man behind Pippin, Pippin’s brother and the storyteller, which are all three impressive by their positive beautiful charismatic personality.

KYLE DEAN MASSAY (November 17, 1981)

Kyle Dean Massey has an impressive career. He works on Broadway in Pippin, Next To Normal, Wicked and Xanadu and maybe people know him because his TV-role Kevin Bicks from ABC’s Nashville.

According to his website Kyle Dean is a passionate supporter of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, The Trevor Project and various human rights groups. He frequently performs in charity concerts at various venues across New York City including Joe’s Pub, Ars Nova & The Laurie Beechman Theatre & 54 Below.

As Pippin Kyle was active in 2014 at “Music Box Theatre” on Broadway followed by the the National tour in 2014 and 2015 that brings him to Japan and ends in April in Holland.

Kyle says “every night is something different, because the show is very alive in every way”.

In 2013 Pippin starts on Broadway, a dream that came true with Erik as Pippin’s brother Lewis and as the understudy of Pippin. Recently on the tour, the role player of Pippin was sick and Erik was able to play the leading role.

His favorite scene in the Musical is “Morning Glow” at the end of the first part, when Pippin become the king.

To play an arrogant role is a great challange for him as an actor. He loves to travel the world with it and he is involved in the show since the start in 2012 and is ready to close the chapter. According to him it is a beautiful end to finish in Theater Carre.

Holland is totally different than The States. In New York there are huge buildings that makes the sun dissapears and when you walk around overhere, the europeans will think that they are crazy with their “ooh-aah”-sounds when they see the sky between all the houses.

Besides Musical, Erik writes and produced his own music. So let’s hope Magic Music Magazine will write something special about that in the nearby future.

A friendly woman playing a bitchy storyteller, is that a good choice… yes, that is! She is amazing as the leading player and it is as “Stretching” for her. She involved for two years with Pippin and is on and off

This is the most extraordinary thing that she has seen. It has singing, dancing, acting and acrobatic.

Her role is very “look at me” but at the finale it is totally different and that is what she likes most.

The crew arrived Monday morning and she still felt the jetlag, but between all the Americans that passed us by everyone looks exciting, fresh and friendly, so I guess we all should embrace the Pippin-vibe and watch the show!

At the end of our meeting, we went out the main entrance and in 5 minutes time a friendly woman says hi from a distance and came our way out of the dark. It looks like… Yes, it was Gabrielle McClinton once again. So confusing and funny. In our minds Gabrielle stays inside Royal Theatre Carré , but she left immediatelly as well going directly to the artist entrance to left the building, so that makes us feel she has a twin sister.

Back in the day, summer 2007 Doenja released a Single “Ik Ben Met Jou Niet Getrouwd” , a track of her Album “Recht Uit Mijn Hart” and as I love dogs, I followed this Labrador-type of woman since then.

As Doenja takes every step she makes in the Music very serious, it is not such a strange move that Twenty 4 Seven-frontman Stay-C believes in her and support her with living her dream.

The Music Act Muze starts in 2011, when Doenja got a song “Kuli, Kuli” for her Doenja & Kids-project and was looking for a rapper. Stay-C and Doenja had common friends that caused an introduction to each other and after Doenja contact Stay-C through Facebook Muze was a fact in an early phase.

Stay-C transformed from Guest Rapper into Mental Coach and noticed Doenja was better off as a solo-act. Than Doenja wants to record an own version of “Endless Love” and wants to sing this famous duet with only one person in mind, once again Stay-C!

Doenja realised that her vocals mixed so well with the voice of Stay-C, she wants even more and invites him to record a whole Album and “Doenja & Stay-C” became “Muze”, that records new songs in a spontanious way. Everything could happened, like rehearsing some Acoustic covers in Zang- en Muziekcentrum Vlaardingen for surprising recordings with fellow Frank van Gerwen at February 10th in Zoetermeer on a rainy Thursday.

Twenty 4 Seven is still going on strong. Stay-C and Li-Ann van Groen let the Nineties come alive one more time, with their fantastic shows around the world, but not with New Material, as people wants “A trip to memory lane” with “Slave To The Music” and not with beautiful fresh tracks like “The Reason”

Recently Twenty 4 Seven performs in South-America and sang all their Nineties Album tracks, but they really do not wants to hear any New Songs and wants to sing along with the famous tracks.

Stay-C and Doenja recorded already 12 songs with Single Quality. A Muze Album is a collection of songs and that does not have to be 12, it could be 20 songs in a mixture of planned ones and fresh new tunes, that will be recorded in an unplanned way.It can be in English language, but also in Dutch. Everything will be streamable worldwide, so for instance a German can listen to their Dutch songs.

Next week Muze released their New Single “Don’t Move” and the “Acoustic” tracks will be made to start the interest in a Theatershow, that Stay-C and Doenja hopes to make it real at the end of the year.‘

Two passionate people who has always do everything as perfect as can be with lots of support behind. I really believe Muze is ready to “Live their dream”, so be prepared!